Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-04-14
CHAPTER XIV.
LINwooD TRANSFORMED,

| L1NWOOD TRANSFORMED.
Shirley had sighed for change Well, sho
had had it.
"You wanted change, did your' she said to
herself. "How do you like it, now you've
got it?
She laughed at Shirley Carstone, in her
bitterness, flying homeward in the train that
| day. For two weeks she had been as happy
as she thought it was given mortal to be.
And now? She said to her other self if
there was human being OIL earth who
thought himself more wretched than she was,
she would be willing to change places with
him.
An old metaphysical question loated into
her mind as she fled homeward still in that
dull train. Whether is it better to know
great happiness and at the same time take
with it the fatal gift of susceptibility to in
tense suffering, or to jog along moderately
comfortable, without ever experiencing tho
| highest height of joy or the deepest depth of
misery! In her stunned, broken mental state,
| Shirley debated the pros and cons Of that old
question half day. Finally she said:
SIT is better to know neither great ioy nor
great suffering There is more pain than
pleasure in the world, anyhow. The uninl-
luSSolOlIttDLC Luc Ouly udDpJ. 11lCK
skinned people don't have half so much
bother"
In her blind misery little things the most
absurd came into Shirley's mind. Col Car
stone had disliked crying women excessively.
Once in her fathers lifetime she had seen her
mother weeping. Her father had said smil-
ingly:
"My dear, dry your tears. Crying women
are an abnormal growth. They are the re-
suit of excessive emotional development in
the sex since the days when man was monkey.
Think how many handkerchiefS have been
worn out, how many bright eyes have been
spoiled. Yes, think how many classic noses
have been Redeemed through excessive emo
tional de Selopment. My dear, don't do it!"'
Her mamma dried her tears instantly. Sho
was always slightly in awe of her strong,
merry husband. But the matter seemed to
strike Col. Carstone somehow He thought
of it further. Her mother left the room
presently, and then he said rather seriously;
Shirley, don't you ever be ono of tho
E1iveling kind. Be a rational, sensible human
being. Rely ON your brains for happiness,
instead of on your emotions Since the world
began, there have always been Byrons to tell
the race that mans love is of mans life q
part, tits woman's whole existence. Women
have been told this so often that they begin
to think it is q credit to them to break their
hearts, so as to display their superior emo
tional nature It's rubbish, Shirley. Women
make two-thirds of their unhappiness, them
selves, through sentimental nonsense. 1t is
not their fault, either so much. The non
sense has been educated into them, and must
be educated out. They must learn self con-
troll. The coming woman will repress her alb
normal emotional development, and put it
back into its right place. Then women will
no longer be more unhappy than men.
Shirley, it would trouble me to the latest day
of my life If thought my daughter would
be one of these uncontrolled, emotional
women"
Shirley laughed. "Do I look like that
papa?" she said.
@No; thank God!" her father replied, fer
vently.
"But what a solemn sermon you have
preached me-" she continued.
every well, daughter lay it away for
rainy Sunday, and then read it," he an
swered.
Had the rainy Sunday come: Was this
Wudt utT ldUueE 4NOWt ulCCK tlli, uttd
she, Shirley, inherited through ages of moth
ers that same fatal emotional development
lier father. had warned her against! Was size
going to let it wreck her lifea How she
scorned herself! And yet 1.s ''.
1t was strange psychological experience
Shirley passed through at this time 1t was
such a rude upsetting of all the ways Of
thought to which she had been accustomed.
The faiths and the ideals to which she had |
chung oil her life, had been torn out by tho
roots Nights OF sleeplessness followed days |
of fierce mental conflict, till at last she found
herself in an odd state of physical exhaustion /
and mental exaltation. @ 5l'" Jatj 90 /
, In the depths Of her grief, the most laugh |
able incidents she had known, the most tcomical |
stories she had heard, came up before her |
with perverse persistency, and Knocked her
like fiends. Weird faces followed her and |
watched her in the darkness, and finally in
the daylight They were genuine physical 4
images; she saw them plainly with her wax /
ing eyes, in her right senses. She could have 4
described the dress they wore, the colon o. |
their hair The same images hannted her day |
after day. This one had the identical peculiar
ties of dress. that one grinned at her with his